Fundraising Archives - WealthEngine

July 12, 2019July 12, 2019

Hospital Fundraising: Diversify Your Strategy for Donors & Prospects

Screening your patients does not make a Grateful Patient Program (GPP) successful. So, you may be wondering: if that doesn’t, what does? The truth is that your hospital fundraising can benefit from looking beyond wealth screening. Custom models are tailored to maximize fundraising revenue across every stage of the donor lifecycle.

Need a refresher on the basics of Grateful Patient Programs?
Read More–>

Want to know how models can maximize results from your screening data? Read More–>

I’m using modeling, what more can I do?

Firstly, you need to diversify your strategy between prospects and donors. In order to do that, you need to understand what makes each group different.

Similarities between the two groups allow you to convert prospects to donors. Thus, your hospital fundraising pipeline can feature qualified leads. For example, let’s say all your donors are over 50, they all live within a 100-mile radius and have a high P2G score. This means that prospects who share these traits are likely to donate to your cause.

The differences between your donors can educate you about what pieces of the puzzle are missing. For instance, you may find that your donors have attended at least 3 events while prospects have not.

What’s The Best Next Step for My Hospital?

You may have used models to rank and qualify your donor base into deciles based on propensity and capacity. This step is foundational. You can propel your hospital fundraising to new heights when you use custom models created for prospects, existing donors, and former donors.

This way, you can maximize the potential in every segment. Furthermore, you can ensure that you are engaging donors in every stage of the lifecycle.

What Healthcare Organizations Have to Say

WealthEngine’s client is a major South Eastern health system. Their hospital fundraising team created a tailor-made model for their annual gala. This model helped them not only understand their list of invitees but also benefit from their inclination to give.

With the model pointing them in the right direction, the annual event went from raising $400,000 to $7.4M in a short time.

Similarly, healthcare organization MMRF saw a three-fold increase in ROI in just two months!

The WealthEngine Difference

With WealthEngine, you are only steps away from creating the perfect fundraiser. When you screen with us, you can add 50+ data points on your donor base that will show you attributes that go beyond wealth.

After which you can build a custom model using WealthEngine’s screening data. By doing this, you can make sure that you’ve started with high precision input and insights. Our modeling process will create a custom algorithm to boost your hospital fundraising.

This means results from the model are not pre-built. They are not just indicative of healthcare donors or the behavior of your donors towards nonprofits in general. They are specific to your donors’ attitudes towards your hospital.

How can I boost my hospital fundraising today?

Follow these three steps to get started today:

Step 1: Screen Regularly

Regular screenings can serve as the foundation for fundraising. Nightly wealth screenings help ensure that you don’t miss any opportunities. They enable you to see a complete picture of a patient’s wealth, lifestyle, and affinities.

Step 2: Segment Your Donor Base

As we’ve determined earlier, a single strategy cannot work on prospects, existing donors, and former donors. Your donor base is a dynamic landscape of individuals within different stages of the lifecycle.

Identify and segment your core donors from sporadic ones. Further, create a segment for all prospects who have not yet given. Lastly, watch out for donors in your system who are at risk for churn or have stopped donating altogether.

Step 3: Build Your Custom Hospital Fundraising Model

You can build a model for each stage in the lifecycle. Prospects can be ranked based on their likelihood to give to a particular campaign. Similarly, donors can be prioritized based on capacity and intent. Lastly, you can identify those former donors who are most likely to come back.

When you understand what these segments have in common, you can tailor your communication in ways that resonate with them. Therefore, diversifying your strategy for each segment allows you to maximize your hospital fundraising.

Build Your Custom Model Today–>

Top 10 Skills That The Chief Development Officer of Tomorrow Will Need

The nonprofit landscape is ever-changing, yes. But, with major shifts coming in the next few years, Chief Development Officers (CDOs) or nonprofit leaders need to update the ways in which they approach their role.

What are these shifts? They relate to regulation, technology, and attitudes that come with new demographics that will be part of the workforce.

First, let’s look at the major trends that will affect the nonprofit sector over the next few years.

6 Trends That Affect Nonprofit Leaders

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning— Big Data was a big deal in the last technology cycle. Going forward, automation will be a major theme. Data will need to be refreshed, stored safely, and interpreted for insights. These will be enabled by AI ML.
Privacy— Changing regulation across the world will make data harder to access. The public will have greater control over their own data. For this reason, organizations that rely on data will need a strategy to gain consent.
Cybersecurity– With data privacy regulation on the rise globally, Personally Identifiable Information (PII) info will need greater protection. Thus, Chief Development Officers will need to budget for higher investments in cybersecurity.
Changing Demographics at the Workplace— As Millennials & Gen Z dominate the workplace, work culture will undergo a massive shift. Further, these generations care about authenticity and solving problems on a global scale. They may have a free-flowing career path, but they want to work at organizations that stand for something meaningful.
Social Media— Social media is here to stay. Channels may become more niche to serve the diverse interests of its users. Social media will also have a bearing on fundraising. Nonprofit leaders may see that giving is more fragmented, but there is a higher volume of smaller donations.

“With the click of a ‘like button’, users will be able to make microdonations, a cent or even less.” says, Felix Hartmann, CEO of FundThis
Tax Laws— Changing tax laws may reduce gift size and frequency especially among sporadic donors. On the other hand, there will be an increase in the likelihood of Donor Advised Funds.

These trends affect the role of the Chief Development Officer in many impactful ways. CDOs need to understand these trends so that they can get ahead of them. Thus, here are top skills that nonprofit leaders will need in each area that affects them.

Top 3 Technical Skills That CDOs of Tomorrow Will Need

1. AI-Powered Data Modeling

Understanding the importance of data is only the first step. Nonprofit leaders should familiarize themselves with AI. Artificial Intelligence in data modeling, for instance, finds patterns among donors and prospects. Using wealth data analytics powered by AI gives you the ability to know the right “ask” amount for each potential donor.

2. Refine Precision Through Machine Learning

The old way of using your network, while still useful, is actually going to slow you down. Fortunately, Machine Learning technology can speed things up. When you use analytics to generate insights regularly, machine learning can constantly improve your results.

For instance, AI allows you to find important patterns among your top donors. Machine learning can refine these over time so that you have a precise formula for finding new donors just like your best ones.

3. Evolve from CRM to CDP

CRM is yesterday’s news, CDP is going to be the next big thing. CDP or a Customer Data Platform gives CDOs the ability to unify paid and owned data, according to McKinsey.

Thus, nonprofit leaders need to empower their team by integrating wealth, demographic, lifestyle, and affinities within a centralized CDP. This way, your team spends more time talking to the right people than spending time on administrative tasks.

Top 3 Skills Needed to Stay Ahead of Regulatory Changes

1. Keep Up with Privacy Laws

The implementation of GDPR was a game-changer in Europe. This is a sign of things to come. Chief Development Officers need to keep up with changing privacy laws. When user consent becomes necessary for data, you will need a strategy to ensure that your donors remain connected to your organization.

2. Speak the Language of Cybersecurity

With PII data requiring more security, it is increasingly important to understand data collection, storage, and sharing. CDOs will need to hire an in-house data security expert or work with qualified consultants. Further, you will need to be equipped to speak their language. This will help you ensure that your infrastructure meets industry requirements.

3. Build Relationships with Wealth Managers

With the new tax laws, donor attitudes may change over time. CDOs who move quickly to leverage wealth data analytics and technology will gain a larger share of wallet from competing causes. Similarly, building relationships with Wealth Managers can help familiarize prospects with your cause. With the support of financial service professionals, you can gain traction on Donor Advised Funds.

Top 3 Leadership Skills CDOs Need to Leverage The New Workforce

1. Embrace Diversity

Millennials in the US are the most diverse generation to date. Therefore, nonprofit leaders must understand and embrace diversity. This means that cultural sensitivity has to be built into your leadership skills. Moreover, individuals have different intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, understanding what makes each one tick will create a harmonious workplace.

2. Lead with Authenticity

Leading with authenticity and passion are big draws for teams consisting of younger generations. For instance, motivating younger employees to give their all to your cause will be easier when they can see how much you believe in it.

3. Be Open to Learning

When it comes to the proliferation of social media and the increasing dependence on technology, a younger workforce can prove to be a great asset. As a leader, it is important that you are open to reverse mentoring from younger employees with respect to these areas.

Bonus Communication Skill to Ensure Donor Engagement

The benefit of fragmented donations over social media is the volume of donations. As a Chief Development Officer, you need to look beyond your core donor on social media. Further, activating potential donors online helps you create awareness that leads up to an actual conversation.

Using engagement metrics, you can understand how often to connect with members of your community. For example, some people don’t mind regular communications and outreach efforts. Others may be happy to donate but prefer infrequent contact.

How We Can Help

WealthEngine9 or WE9 is built to prepare you and your organization for the future. We leverage AI/ML to deliver automation. This means that your team can be enriched with insights on your donor base that go beyond wealth. In fact, WE Screen enables you to add 50+ data points on each donor- data on wealth, lifestyle, demographics, interests, and affinities. These can be added to your database at the click of a button.

What’s more? With WE9, our industry-specific CDP will enable you to unify your data and make operation seamless for your team. When younger employees come in with convoluted career paths, you can rest easy that the learning curve on the platform is negligible.

Our modeling solutions help you answer specific fundraising questions. For example, you can evaluate your donor base to find the prospects who are best suited for major gifts.

With our holistic and seamless solutions, your team can spend more time gaining deeper insights into your donors and building long-term relationships. As a result, they will not need to spend their hours on administrative tasks or learning how to use several different platforms to gain insights.

Get Started Today

Engaging Alumni: 7 Steps to Convert New Graduates into Future Donors

Your students just graduated. What can you do to ensure long-term engagement among this group of graduates? If an alumnus doesn’t donate within 10 years of graduating, there’s a good chance you’ve lost them forever. Even though alumni fundraising is a long game, your advancement team should think about engaging alumni as soon as they graduate.

Follow these 7 steps to create a bond that results in a lifetime of giving.

Step 1: Don’t Lose Touch

When your current student body is graduating, make sure that they stay in touch with your institution. Have them join your Facebook or LinkedIn groups. Prompt them to follow you on Instagram or Snapchat. You may have an overall account for your institution and others for different departments. Encourage them to join both.

It is not enough for these alumni to simply follow you on social networks. You will also need to keep them engaged on these channels. This means you will also need to create engaging content on these channels constantly. Moreover, you will need to stay active on all platforms. For instance, you can post news about the achievements of other alumni and ask them to share what’s going on in their lives.

Similarly, sending an engaging alumni newsletter should be part of your strategy. Your newsletter is another good way to remain in touch. You can use it to highlight institutional achievements, news about your institution, and career opportunities within the network.

Step 2: Connect Alumni to The Next Batch of Students

When it comes to engaging alumni, it’s important to make them feel like they are still part of the community. Most higher education institutions hesitate to connect current students to alumni. This stems from a fear of tapping the alumni network out.

Your alumni engagement strategy should give your alumni control over communication between themselves and current students. Invite them to become mentors. This gives them the power to say yes or no. Further, it allows them to feel connected to your university and feel like they are giving back.

In fact, your current students will have a lot to gain from connecting with relevant alumni. By doing this, you are already grooming current students for long-term engagement with your institution.

Step 3: Connect Alumni to Each Other

You’ve found ways to keep in touch with your alumni base. Now it’s time to create connections among them. For example, you can encourage former students to join alumni network chapters in their cities.

So, how will these steps lead to enhanced fundraising?

The fact is that you have to establish a strong connection with recent graduates. Engaging alumni is the foundation of fundraising. They have to feel a sense of community within your institution. When recent graduates are dealing with student loans and the beginnings of their careers, it can be the wrong time to ask for gifts. At this stage, it’s important to establish a connection more than anything else.

By doing this, you are setting the stage for your long-term alumni engagement strategy.

Step 4: Engage Alumni by Appealing to their Interests

Your alumni engagement strategy has to have a long-term view. The next step is to understand alumni interests. Doing this provides you two benefits:

First, it tells you more about your alumni body in general. Second, it makes alumni engagement more effective. For instance, when you know that a subgroup of alumni is interested in the arts, you can create events that appeal to their interests. When events are catered to alumni interests, they are more likely to attend them and thereby stay connected to your institution.

Moreover, you can strengthen alumni-student relationships by connecting the right people with each other. When these relationships prove effective, it increases your credibility in the long-term.

Step 5: Screen Your Network Regularly

You may already have an understanding of an alumnus’ background and interests from the time of admission to graduation. Wealth screening can enhance your view of them. Screening can help you understand how they live, give, and save.

Alumni status and life stages are constantly changing. As a matter of fact, recent graduates tend to move often until they establish themselves. This move may be geographical or professional.

Northwestern University is a prime example. Their Development Research and Prospect Management team found it challenging to match addresses in their alumni base. Using WE Screen allowed them to match 31,000 alumni with new addresses.

Regular screenings help you ensure that you are always working with updated information. Additionally, screening can add valuable information on alumni wealth, lifestyle, interests, and affinities. Engaging alumni becomes easier when you are working with a fuller picture.

Moreover, if you have API integration enabled, you can automatically receive updated data in your DMS.

Step 6: Personalize your ask

Understanding prospects beyond their wealth is the first step towards personalized alumni engagement. When you understand what makes an alumnus tick, you can speak their language.

You should personalize not only your message but also the medium of communication. For instance, some alumni may be interested in attending a wine-tasting event in their city. Similarly, some may be more likely to respond to an invite sent via direct mail. Others may be more responsive to a phone call. Personalization boosts your alumni engagement strategy by making your message resonate.

When it comes to asking for a donation, personalization plays a major role. Using screening data and insights gives you an idea of a person’s gift capacity, propensity, and intent. You can rank prospects based on propensity and intent. This way you’re only appealing to those alumni who are most likely to donate. Your ask can also be customized to each donor based on their capacity.

Step 7: Show the impact of their donations

Once you have converted prospects into donors, it’s important to keep them engaged. Engaging alumni in the long-term results in recurring donations, a path to major gifts or even planned giving.

The most effective way to keep them engaged is to show them what their dollars have helped you achieve. For instance, you can show a microbiology alumnus that their donation helped you restore a lab. This helps them understand the direct impact of their gift. Further, it resonates with their interest in the subject. They have helped you provide top-notch facilities for future students of microbiology. When they understand how they are helping uplift future contributors to their field, it makes them more interested in giving again.

Transform Alumni Engagement Strategy with WealthEngine 9

These steps should help you have a long-term view on engaging alumni. Learn more about how WealthEngine9 (WE9) is changing the fundraising landscape.

Explore WE9 Now →

How to Spot Major Gift Opportunities In Your Day of Giving Donor List

Giving Day or Day of Giving is being adopted by more universities across the US every year. Day of Giving collections are also increasing. Cornell, for example, saw double the number of donors in one year. They’ve also raised over $7M in a single year, surpassing all their previous Giving Day records.

With each university starting their own version of this day, the importance of this day cannot be ignored. Let’s start with the basics and finish by analyzing how you can find Major Gift opportunities in your Day of Giving donor list.

What is Day of Giving?

Day of Giving is a specific 24-hour window in which a university accepts gifts from anyone, anywhere in the world. Gifts are given online, which means that alumni and other members of the institution’s community can lend support from anywhere.

Giving Days are becoming increasingly popular due to their viral and convenient nature. Some universities leverage #GivingTuesday to run their Day of Giving campaigns. Yet, others have their own designated Giving Days.

These events also have an element of gamification. Each higher education institution sets up several giving challenges or goals that donors can reach. Accomplishing these goals gains them acknowledgment and recognition among the community.

For instance, the University of Chicago has various viral opportunities. They recognize their first donor, their first international donor, etc. They even have a Nobel Prize Challenge—asking donors to donate $91 to represent the number of Nobel Laureates who are part of their alumni diaspora.

Giving Day Success

Many WealthEngine clients have seen incredible success during their respective events. For instance, Boston University raised $3.5M from 11,800 donors. Donors included alumni and other members of the BU community who donated from 50 different countries.

The time-sensitivity of these events creates a sense of urgency among donors. The viral/social conversations around them build a sense of community. Moreover, the ability to make donations online, especially to specific causes, makes it more convenient to donate.

Vanderbilt University recently raised $9.4M from less than 8500 donors. This shows that Day of Giving events are gaining traction and giving amounts are also increasing each year.

Lifetime Value of Giving Day Donors

Donor Lifetime Value is an estimate of how much you can expect a particular donor to contribute to your organization over their lifetime.

There are many factors that go into calculating what this number should be. Not only should you take into account a donor’s wealth indicators but you should also look at their propensity to give to your cause.

Giving Day donors are a unique set. They may differ from your other donors by being more spontaneous with their gifts. They may also donate sporadically over time. Furthermore, these events attract donors who may not come in through the typical fundraising pipeline.

The inconsistency or diversity of donors should not stop you from assessing their lifetime value. With the right engagement techniques, Giving Day donors can be put on the path to long-term membership. Click to learn more about calculating Donor Lifetime Value.

Hidden Major Gift Opportunity

When new donors come in through your Giving Day channel, use the opportunity to learn more about them. Wealth Screening can help you learn more about their wealth, lifestyle, interests, and affinities. Thus, screening can provide a 360-degree view of your Day of Giving donor list.

More importantly, screening your list can uncover gems you didn’t know you had. For instance, a major university that is a WealthEngine client found out that one of their low-level donors was capable of giving a Major Gift. Through screening, the university was able to determine the right ask. As a result, they have now received $5M from this donor.

In fact, Washinton & Lee University’s advancement team has said, “Our first six months of peer screening resulted in the identification of 284 completely new prospects with validated gift capacity ratings of over 100,000. We were also able to confirm and/or upgrade known prospects at equally high levels.”

Further, WealthEngine clients receive WE Insights, a free service that showcases what makes their donors unique.

Take Screening Data to the Next Level Through Modeling

Screening Data and WE Insights give you a more holistic picture of your Giving Day donors. However, you could take these insights to the next level through modeling.

A model is a specific formula created for your institution. This formula helps answer a particular question. Click to learn more about creating a model.

Modeling can identify Major Gift opportunities in your Giving Day list in three simple steps:

Step 1: Model your Past Major Gift Donors

Create a model to understand your existing Major Gift donors. The model will scan your database and divide it into 10 equal segments ranked by likelihood of Major Gift giving. You can use the top 10% or 20% of your donor base as the ideal sample.

This ideal group will have a set of common traits among them.

Step 2: Run Your Giving Day Donor List against the Major Gift model

Doing this will score each Day of Giving donor against your Major Gift formula. This will help you identify donors who resemble your Major Gift donors. Similar traits are a predictor of similar behavior.

Step 3: Prioritize Major Gift Donors from your Giving Day List

Those Giving Day donors with high match scores to your existing major gift donors should become a top priority. This means that these Giving Day donors have both the capacity and the propensity to give Major Gifts. You can then rank them based on their score and hand them off to your Major Gifts Officers for cultivation.

Get a Free “Test File” analysis of a segment of your Giving Day donors

Interested in learning more about the Major Gift potential in your Giving Day donor list? WealthEngine can provide a free test file analysis to show you what your results could look like.

WE Screen can add 50+ data points to your sample list of donors so you can understand their gift capacity range and propensity to give. Furthermore, WE Screen can add actionable information on lifestyle, demographics, interests, and affinities. Screening data will be accompanied by a sample WE Insights report that will show you what makes your Giving Day donors respond to asks.

Simply fill out the form on the right and a WealthEngine rep will contact you about your free test file and WE Insights report.

University Fundraising: Use Modeling to Identify Overlooked Prospects

University sees 88% Reduction in Major Gift Donor Lead Time Through Data Modeling

May 1, 2019May 2, 2019

University Fundraising: Use Modeling to Identify Overlooked Prospects

Did you know that your screening data can help you find overlooked donors? Wealth Screening is not a new concept in university fundraising. WealthEngine’s solution WE Screen has helped several higher education institutions understand their alumni base by appending a breadth of data. For instance, Northwestern University used WE Screen to enhance their development efforts.

Prior to the first parent screening, their Parents’ Fund raised approximately $500,000 annually. Within the first year of screening, they found that the Fund had doubled. Within four years, the Fund had almost quadrupled to $1.75M.

Screening is a great start. However, higher education fundraising has a little known secret that few educational institutions use. The secret is modeling. When you create a model of your past donors, you learn unique insights about your contacts. Continue reading “University Fundraising: Use Modeling to Identify Overlooked Prospects”

April 26, 2019May 2, 2019

University sees 88% Reduction in Major Gift Donor Lead Time Through Data Modeling

One of WealthEngine’s clients is a large, private, research university in the midwest with an international student body of about 12,000 students.

The university’s fundraising team had a plan in place for fundraising at all levels. However, Major Gifts were a challenge. WealthEngine’s Client Engagement Manager (CEM) suggested that they use wealth modeling as a solution.

The development team was skeptical at first. By explaining that WealthEngine could build a custom model for the university, the CEM was able to convince the Major Gift Officers to try it as a pilot program.

The custom model included categorical and numerical data chosen by the university with guidance from the CEM. Custom data from the university was able to generate a model that automatically identified the top 10% of their donors.

These were donors with gift capacities in the $100,000 range. Over 200 members were identified as top prospects for the university’s major gifts program.

The model instilled confidence in the development team. As the next step of pilot testing, their Major Gifts Officers called a random sample of 10 members from their list. To their surprise, all 10 members answered their call and had a conversation with them. Thus, their effort resulted in a staggering response rate during the pilot stage.

From the 10 phone calls, the university was able to have in-person meetings with 3 major gift prospects. Therefore, the pilot saw a 30% engagement rate. Major Gift Officers are now in serious talks with 2 of the 3 members for gifts at the $100,000 level, resulting in a 20% overall lead conversion rate.

The exercise has made the university realize that only the top 10% of their database has a gift capacity of $20 million. Their major gifts program, therefore, received a significant boost from the custom model developed by WealthEngine. What’s more? Their Major Gifts Officers were able to go from initial phone call to a conversation about actual gift amounts within 2 months. The model was able to cut down the lead time by about 88% compared to the industry average.

WealthEngine Customers: Get a Free Modeling Sample of Your Data.

January 25, 2019April 22, 2019

Prospect Research Best Practices for Arts & Culture Fundraisers

As a development professional in the arts and culture sector, you may be looking for prospect research best practices. Today, fundraising is both an art and a science. While data drives decision making, there is also a subtle art involved in framing and timing the ask. With this in mind, here are 3 top best practices in prospect research for arts & culture fundraisers.

Our prospect research best practice recommendations combined with tailored solutions will help you:

Increase prospect engagement through personalization
Convert more ticket buyers into donors or members
Let your best donors guide your prospect research

1. Increase Prospect Engagement Through Personalization

Personalization is a mantra that you will hear about often in the near future. This is a key prospect research best practice in the arts and culture sector. Most organizations generally have automated emails thanking someone for a low/mid-level gift. Even though this is common practice, it is not impactful.

Personalization is necessary to increase impact and engagement. Sustained engagement will encourage prospects to support your cause, thereby becoming donors. The messaging needs to be personalized regardless of the medium. For example, a handwritten letter or call from the Executive Director sent to high-level donors can ensure a deeper connection.

Prospect research can help you take this a step further. You can personalize communication not only based on giving history but also on giving capacity and other wealth factors.

WealthEngine can empower your prospect research to reach the right set of major gift donor prospects. We can help you decide if someone should be in an annual fund portfolio or major gift portfolio.

Our wealth intelligence goes beyond net worth to generate a holistic propensity score. Wealth screening can help you set your prospect research in motion and increase donation amounts across all giving brackets by optimizing your ask.

2. Convert Arts and Culture Ticket Buyers or Visitors into Donors

You may be familiar with the common struggle at arts and culture organizations – the difficulty of prioritizing between ticket sales and fundraising. Both are equally important to sustain the organization. However, with lean teams, one of these gets prioritized at the cost of the other. Most organizations that we speak with tend to do a great job filling the seats in a theater or getting a high volume of visitors. Ideally, all those ticket buyers/visitors would be donors or members. Although we recognize that this may not be the case right now.

It may seem like a monumental task to research every ticket buyer or visitor. But these visitors are your greatest prospects! Our next prospect research best practice recommendation can help convert visitors to life-long donors or members. WealthEngine has the capability to screen a ticket buyer at the point of sale and notify you so you can begin nurturing. Furthermore, our API will capture potential major donor prospects in real time.

For instance, if you have a new ticket buyer who conducts the transaction on your website. Our wealth screening solution combined with API can update you on their wealth, demographic and lifestyle information immediately. This allows your team to identify prospects who have not only the capacity to give but also the propensity and intent.

The broad nature of this type of prospect research will give your team the ability to roll out the red carpet. Top prospects can be given the platinum experience before and after any event. This level of personalization would enable the visitor to become better engaged with your organization, creating a strong case to become a donor.

3. Let Your Best Donors Guide Your Prospect Research

In our experience, we have found that a lot of organizations have a solid set of low and mid-level donors. A lot of these donors have not only greater gift capacities, but also the interest and motivation to give. They can easily be leveled up to ensure that there is no money left at the table. As a prospect research best practice, it comes down to perfecting the ask.

There are two ways to increase the number of high-level donors:

Optimize your ask. Don’t forget that prospect research can still be applied to your current donor base! Prospect research allows you to determine the capacity, propensity, and intent of donors and prospects. Use the insight from prospecting to ensure that gifts from your current donors match their capacity and propensity.

Our demographic, lifestyle, interests, and affinity data can help gift officers with this best practice. Fundraisers can maintain a meaningful dialog with donors and prospects as part of the nurturing process.

Find new high-level donors. In-depth prospect research allows you to do a deep dive into your donor base and identify patterns of traits among your high-level donors in order to find more prospects like them. WealthEngine’s analytical and predictive modeling solution can build models based on your top donors.

Our prospecting solution uses insights from these models to find more high-level prospects. This way your best donors can help you find your next best prospects! In one such instance, our client went from raising $400k at their gala to $7.8M in 3 years. They were able to accomplish this by using WealthEngine to identify other prospects modeled after their top donors.

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Take your prospect research to the next level, contact us to learn more.

We hope these prospect research best practices set you up for year-round arts and culture fundraising success! Contact us to learn more about how our solutions can help you perfect your prospect research. Fill the form on the right and a WealthEngine rep will contact you very soon.

Capital Campaigns: Fundraising Strategy for Nonprofits

Strategic campaign fundraising is typically dependent on the structure of your capital campaign gift pyramid and your understanding of your donors. Once you’ve structured your gift pyramid, and you begin approaching existing and potential donors, it’s important to balance your need to procure gifts with your ability to connect with your donors. But, how do you effectively communicate with existing or potential donors? Here are three fundraising strategies for your nonprofit to use during the campaign fundraising process.

Sequential Solicitation

The primary fundraising strategy for all nonprofits when carrying out a capital campaign is sequential solicitation. Sequential solicitation is a guide, outlining the order in which you should receive gifts from lead donors to meet your campaign fundraising goal.

It’s important to secure your largest gifts first, and then work your way down the gift table, receiving smaller gifts towards the end of your capital campaign. Once you’ve achieved 50 to 70% of your goal (which you should complete during the Silent Phase), you can then make your capital campaign public and receive gifts from the community you’re serving.

Although campaign stalls can stem from internal campaign issues, such as an overworked staff, the most common reason is the failure to follow sequential solicitation. This is based on the four axioms of campaign fundraising:

The ten largest gifts set the standard for the entire campaign
Not following the top-down structure lowers giving sights across the board
Extended solicitation at lower levels will not offset major gaps in upper ranges
Once the first big gift sequence has been seriously violated, the entire program is in jeopardy

Approaching Potential Donors

Although the sequential solicitation model is in place, you may be wondering: how does it look in practice? Where do I start? That leads to our next fundraising strategy for nonprofits, which is an extension of sequential solicitation. Typically, there are 5 steps to sequential solicitation to help you approach potential donors:

Inquire. First, you want to build a prospect list, or leverage Wealth data, to identify the right people who can provide funding to your campaign. Once you’ve identified potential donors, it’s important to conduct external and internal research to assess each group or individuals capacity and propensity to give.
Plan. Once you’ve identified and researched potential donors, it’s time to figure out how you’ll engage with your donors. Besides outlining your intentions and goal, ask yourself: what aspect of the campaign would appeal to them? Is this appealing enough to gain their commitment?
Cultivate. Now that you’ve considered the ways in which your donor might contribute to your goal, it’s time to probe. By bringing your potential donor closer to your cause, you’re able to show them what you’re doing and what you’re intending to do. In doing so, they may end up committed to your work and want to help.
Procure and Secure. The time has come to explicitly request support and secure the contribution from your donor. If your donor has decided contributed, it’s your responsibility to follow up on the details in receiving the contribution. How much is the proposed donation? When the donation will be mad?; How will it be made?
Express Gratitude. You’ve planned, engaged your donor, and have received your gift. Now what? It’s imperative to acknowledge the importance of your donor’s contribution, and their influence on your work at large. By creating a connection with them, and expressing your appreciation not only for their contribution but of them as an individual or organization, your donor may feel inclined to give later on.

Appealing to the Motivations of Donors

Our final fundraising strategy for nonprofits is identifying, understanding, and acting upon the motivations of donors. Now that you’ve structured a way to collect gifts, and how you can successfully approach potential donors, it’s important to understand the motivations of your donors. Generally, there are four types of motivations:

Philanthropy. Donors with philanthropic motivations want to help change the world.
Connection. Donors motivated by affinity are those who wish to be connected to a cause that has similar values to their own.
Reciprocity. Donors motivated by mutual benefit seek to help organizations that will, in return, provide them with some advantage.
Social Consciousness. Donors with social motivations don’t simply want to contribute to a cause. They want to be part of a community.

By identifying their values, you’re able to create targeted messaging or find other ways to effectively communicate with donors. Not only will this help you with your existing or inherited campaign, but depending on the connection you forge with other groups or individuals, they may feel inclined to support and contribute to future projects of yours.

Get your campaign started today. Fill the form on the right to speak with a WealthEngine expert.

December 12, 2018December 12, 2018

Using Big Data and Fundraising Data Analytics for Marketing

The evolution and growth of big data is transforming the way we market and connect with donors and prospects. But, what does this data mean for commercial non-profit markets, and how can it be leveraged? Let’s explore how big data and fundraising data analytics is influencing our practices, and how we can navigate through this new space effectively.

What is Big Data?

Ask 10 people, and you may get 10 different answers. Big Data can generally be defined as data from multiple sources, combined in ways to make it informative and actionable. By combining data from disparate sets, patterns and insights emerge, and this actually creates more data! As we recognize patterns and trends in the data, these relationships, not previously a part of the data set, become new bits of data ripe for mining and analysis.

As time goes on, bigger data sets are also generated because information is being collected from social media, smart phones, cameras, satellites, remote sensors and other newly emerging technologies. 90% of the world’s data today has been created in the last 2 years alone. Every day, we create an estimate of 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. That’s 2.5 with 17 zeroes behind it! Needless to say, there’s an enormous amount of data that marketers or fundraisers can take advantage of.

What does Big Data mean to the marketer or fundraiser?

To the fundraiser or marketer, Big Data is the ability to see each consumer or prospect in a 360-degree view, and to personalize messages and interactions with that individual to create the ultimate purchasing or donating experience. We all know relationships are the key to successful marketing. Making sure that our prospects have the best experience they can have with our organization, whether it is a luxury brand selling luxury goods, or a nonprofit seeking funding for their mission, will improve their results.

One of the key buzzwords in marketing these days is “relevance.” Companies and organizations are generating content and practicing content marketing, but the key to making content marketing work is to be sure that the content we put forth is relevant to the audience we are targeting. That’s where fundraising data analytics and big data comes in. Knowing your customers’ likes and dislikes; buying and donating behaviors; relationships with others in your universe; and most importantly, their wealth, and buying or investing power, allows you the ability to make your messages truly relevant on an almost individual basis.

How can I harness the power of Big Data?

So, given the high volume of data points generated, and the barriers to accessing and processing all these points, how can marketing or fundraising professionals reap the benefits of Big Data? To leverage fundraising data analytics, and big data, the fundraiser and marketer must:

Capture
Curate
Transform
Normalize
Parse
Combine
Analyze
Report, and
Visualize

These actions and activities would require more resources than most small to mid-sized businesses have on hand. So how can the small shop leverage big data? How can the mid-sized nonprofit use fundraising data analytics to continue measuring the relationship between investment and fundraising? How can this data be utilized without investing inordinate resources on data collection, curation, and analysis?

Selecting the right Big Data Partner

The answer is finding the right partner. Choosing the right Big Data partner can make your marketing and fundraising messages resonate with your unique audiences. When you’re shopping for a data partner, consider the following questions:

Does this partner understand wealth?

While behavior is an important element, wealth is the true driver for both purchasing and donating. Does this partner have experience curating data? For all of us who have tried to merge two spreadsheets of different sizes, or import data into an existing structured CRM, or transform text into numeric data, we can begin to glean the many challenges of working with huge data sets that require many steps to massage into a meaningful whole. It’s beneficial to work with a Big Data partner who routinely works with data sets of all types and sizes.

Is the potential partner willing to work with you to select the data you need to append, and to customize a data solution for your needs?

Too much data can be as bad as not enough data. Make sure you get the right fit by selecting a partner who can assist by understanding your needs and providing a customized solution. It’s equally important that your partner is leveraging resources that allow you create a wealth search and help you understand a potential or existing donor’s capacity to spend, invest, or give.

Does the partner add value?

Data is the foundation for knowledge and insight, but you need a partner with a robust analytics understanding who can add value to your data with ratings and scores, predictive modeling, clustering analysis and other techniques. Analysis is where the true value of data is derived.

Will the partner work with your data?

Much of your most valuable data resides in your own CRM or DMS. By combining the data you have with additional Big Data sets, you can extract the most value. Having a partner who can work with both, and who understands your business needs and challenges will reap the best results.

Does the partner have all the data you need?

Shopping piecemeal for data is time consuming and difficult. So finding one partner who has wealth, demographic, lifestyle, behavioral, and biographic data at the individual and household levels. This can parse, normalize, and combine all your data points, and saving you hours of aggravation.

Organizations of any size and any level of data competency can harness the insights of fundraising data analytics with the right partner. If you’d like to learn more about the power of fundraising data analytics, contact us to speak with one of our experienced consultants.

November 5, 2018April 17, 2019

5 Reasons To Get Your Nonprofit Prepared For #GivingTuesday

If you are a fundraiser, it’s definitely no surprise to you that the time for year-end fundraising is right around the corner. Even if you are close to hitting annual targets, #GivingTuesday is a huge opportunity to boost your efforts and help you exceed your goals.

With #GivingTuesday fast approaching, you can enhance your year-end fundraising by reminding your donors and prospects to participate? But, that begs the question: is #GivingTuesday appropriate for every nonprofit?

For most nonprofits, if your year-end fundraising could use a boost, then a #GivingTuesday campaign can provide your nonprofit with the lift it needs. So, what are the benefits of participating in #GivingTuesday? There are five primary advantages of involving your nonprofit in #GivingTuesday:

1. Global Presence and Relevance

#GivingTuesday has gone beyond what is referred to as #activism. Everyone from Bill Gates to Reese Witherspoon engages in #GivingTuesday and encourage their followers to give on this day.

The movement has also found a global following through social media. This provides nonprofits with the potential to gain exposure and donors worldwide.

2. Seasonality and Generosity

Overtime, the holiday season has become more and more commercialized. While consumers spend significantly during this time of year, there is also a growing sentiment of generosity among many. #GivingTuesday is strategically placed after Thanksgiving when families have come together, felt grateful for what they have, and realized that not everyone is afforded the same lifestyle and experiences.

At a time like this, when sentiments are high, even small prompts or reminders to make a difference can create a significant impact.

3. Growing Public Conscience and Purpose

It’s true that the holidays are a time of giving and generosity. However, data has also shown that high net-worth individuals, especially millennials and younger generations, are driven by meaning and purpose. They believe in associating with brands that are responsible, and organizations that care about communities and causes.

With this outlook, HNWIs are bound to be aware of #GivingTuesday and its impact. Your nonprofit could leverage their sentiments by providing them with a convenient platform to get involved. Think of it this way, if you are not involved in #GivingTuesday, you may be losing out on individuals who are not only supporters of your cause but who may be likely to donate.

4. Significant and Growing Impact

Besides the sentimental significance of #GivingTuesday, there is no ignoring the financial significance. Last year on #GivingTuesday, nonprofits raised nearly $274 Million across the country. That was a 50% increase compared to 2016.

This year, the day has even greater potential to make a difference to organizations like your nonprofit and the communities and causes you represent.

5. Gateway for New Donors

One doesn’t have to be the ‘philanthropic’ type to participate in #GivingTuesday. The social media-powered movement has been getting the attention of people across the world whether they are usually involved with giving to causes or not.

A #GivingTuesday campaign is a great way for your nonprofit to reach not only new donors but also different types of donors who you wouldn’t normally reach through capital campaigns or major gift programs. #GivingTuesday is about making small contributions as much as it is about making major gifts. You have the ability to reach a wider range of prospects who can become recurring donors or long-term supporters of your organization through continued engagement.

We hope you find that these reasons resonate with your organization. There is a compelling case for creating a #GivingTuesday campaign whether it is a month-long omnichannel undertaking or a simple email to remind donors and prospects about this day.

Now that you know whys behind this event, join us for our Webinar on Thursday, November 15 from 1-2 PM ET to learn how you can plan #GivingTuesday promotions.

Commercial

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